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The Russian Liberation Army (Русская Освободительная Армия--ROA) was the anti-Soviet forces that fought with the NAZIs after the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). The ROA was also known as the Vlasov Army, but Vlasov led only one part of the overall anti-Soviet groups that fought with the NAZIs. The ROA was not part of the initial NAZI planning for Barbarossa. Hitler was planning not only a military campaign in the east, but a war of extinction. Hitler's objective, however, was eventually Holocaust for the Slavic people of the Soviet Union. Only when Red Army resistance stiffened was the idea of a ROA given any real consideration. NAZI propaganda did not focus on the racial component, but rather rather stresses a campaign against Bolshevism. As a result, the NAZIs could recruit Russians and other Soviet peoples to their cause. The major ROA leader was former Red Army general Andrey Vlasov. He tried to unite all anti-Soviet Russians and other nationalities in opposing Stalin. Many were volunteers recruited from the POW camps which in the case of Soviet POWs were virtual death camps. The ROA also included eastern workers (Ostarbeiters) and Russian emigrés (even including anticommunist White Army veterans of the Russian Civil War).
The ROA was not part of the initial NAZI planning for Barbarossa. Hitler saw the Bolshevick regime as "rotton to the core", a "house of cards" that would come tumbling down with one poweful stroke. He thought the Soviet Union could be defeafted like the Poles and French in one short campign. And to make sure he ammassed the most poweful invasion force in history. The Germans struck with an intensity unmached in modern warfare (June 22, 1941). At first it looked like Hitler was right. The Luftwaffe and Panzers penetrated deep into the Soviet Union, surrounding whole Soviet armies. Some Soviets units fought fiercly. Others surrendered without serious resistance. At Kiev alone 0.6 million Red Army soldiers srrendered to the Wehrmacht. Gradually Soviet resistance stiffened. And the weather worsened.
Hitler was planning not only a military campaign in the east, but a war of extinction. Hitler's objective, however, was eventually Holocaust for the Slavic people of the Soviet Union. For the Slavs, the plans were different that the Jews. They were not to be all killed--only some of them. Some were to be deported east of the Urals, which would have meant death for most. Others were to be turned into slave labor for the expanded NAZI Germanic state.
Some historians believe that the NAZIs failure to aggresively exploit the anti-Stalin and anti-Communist sentiment in the Soviet Union. Available source estimate that as many as 1 million Russians may have volunteered for service with the Wehrmacht. This was the case even give the brutal operations conducted by both SS and Whrmacht units in the Soviet Union. Almost surely the NAZIs could have recruited much larger numbers had their intentions been more benign or had they desguised their intentions as they did in the West. Given how close the NAZIs came to success in Barbarossa even with Hitler's meddling, a force of anti-Soviet Russians may will have been decisive if the NAZIs had aggressively persued this opportunity. Hitler eventually authorized the ROA under Russian command, but only late in the war when the Third Reich was already doomed.
Gradually Soviet resisance stiffened. This corresponded to Stalin's listening more to the advise of his generals. In addition the weather began causing increasing problems for the Germans. The Germans began taking substantial casualties themselves. Only when Red Army resistance stiffened was the idea of a ROA given any real consideration.
NAZI propaganda did not focus on the racial component, but rather rather stresses a campaign against Bolshevism. As a result, the NAZIs could recruit Russians and other Soviet peoples to their cause by giving the impression that they were attacking the Communist regime and not the Soviet people.
The Russian Liberation Army (Русская Освободительная Армия--ROA) was the anti-Soviet forces that fought with the NAZIs after the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). The Wehrmact began using Russians who volunteered for service in the Wehrmacht. Details on just who begn doing this and when are not readily available. Hitler and OKW were against this because of the genocidal nature of Barbarossa. For Hitler the idea of Barbarossa was a racial war with the Slavs, the idea of putting them in Wehrmacht uniforms and arming them was apauling. Two factors came into play here. One factor was the demands of the Eastern Front. Wehrmacht commanders in the field were less concerned with a racial campaign and focused in defeating the Red Army. Another factor was the anti-Bolshevick enthusiasm they found among captured Red Army soldiers, both officers and men, as well as the population. As a result, local commannders took the ininitaive to use these volunteers in violation of orders from OKW.
The volunteers wore Wehrmacht uniforms with a Russian Liberation Army patch. There was no such army at the time, but it begn to be used in NAZI propaganda. The ROA volunteers were called "Hiwis", meaning "Hilfswilliger" or "willing to help". There was a first no centralized command structure. They were organized before Vlasov became involved and were under German command. They generally performed a range of non-combat duties in the rear area. One important assignment was guarding towns and villages from the partisans once Wehrmacht combat units had moved east. The Hiwis also served as chauffeurs, kitchen staff, and medical units. Soon as they became increasinly pressed, German commanders began forming small combat units with them, again primarily ro serve in rear areas against the partisans. Hitler permitted references to the ROA be used in NAZI propaganda. He did not, however, authorize the formation of an actual ROA. General Vlasov who was making propaganda brodcasts as well as German commanders seeing the need for added manpower, pleaded with the German high command (OKW) to use the volunteers to form actual ROA combat formations. Hitler and OKW vehemently rejected these pleas.
Many were volunteers recruited from the POW camps which in the case of Soviet POWs were virtual death camps. The ROA also included eastern workers (Ostarbeiters) and Russian emigrés (even including anticommunist White Army veterans of the Russian Civil War).
The level of Russian enlistment in the Wehrmacht was substantial. We note estimares between 0.7-1.0 million men. Hitler was shocked when he learned of the number involved. The War in the East was to be a war of extermination and here the Wehrmacht was enlisting Russian soldiers. In addition he was concerned about the reliability of these soldiers. Hitler ordered that they be transferred to the Western Front. (Silimilar approaches wre used with the units recruited in occupied countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands. The NAZIs were concerned about their reliability when confronting the Ameicans and British.) German commanders on the Eastern Front used a range of subterfuges so as they could retain theur Russian auxilieries. Some were transferred and used on the West Wall defenses. Some were also used to strengthen the garrisons in the Channel Islands seized by the Germans in 1940. American units at Utah Beach encountered some of these units. Most were more than happy to surrender. Some fought when American commanders not understanding the Stalinist system offered repatriation to the Soviet Union.
The Russian Liberation Peoples’ Army (Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya-POHA was a notorious anti-partisan unit commanded by Bronislav Kaminski. It was made up of about 15,000 men. The unit was so barbarous that Kaminski
was eventually shot by the SS for looting.
Disater on the Eastern and Western Fronts finally led Hitler to authorize the formation of ROA units under Russian commanders. By this time the Red Army had smashed Army Group Central in the East and the Western allies had destroyed the 7th Army in France. Of all people, it was Heinrich Himmler who convinced Hitler to authorize the formation of ROA units. This was the same Himmler who had carried out Hitler's genocidal policies in the East. Vlasov met with Himmler ( September 16, 1944). This seems to have changed Himmler's mind.
The plan was to create a force of 10 divisions. Vlasov read the Prague Manifesto to a Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia which had just been created. The text had been a matter of considerable discussion between Vlasov and NAZI officials.
The Manifesto stated that the ROA goal was to defeat Stalin and listed 14 democratic goals. The NAZIs demnded the Manifesto include anti-Semitic phrases. Vlasov refused, but agreed to add passages calling the Western Allies "plutocracies" and "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe".
The ROA was also known as the Vlasov Army, but Vlasov led only one part of the overall anti-Soviet groups that fought with the NAZIs. The major ROA leader was former Red Army general Andrei Vlasov. (His name is spelled differently in various sources.) He tried to unite all anti-Soviet Russians and other nationalities in opposing Stalin.
Vlasov before the Revolution enrred a seminary to become a priest. He left the seminary after the Revolution began. He joined the Red Army (1919) and fought in the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Crimea during the Civil War. He appears to have performed well as an officer and received important promotions.
He joined the Communist Party (1930) and managed to survive Stalin's purges. He appears to have been noted and trusted by Stalin. Vlasov was involved in the defence of Moscow (December 1941). He wa decorated for actions around Kiev ans Moscow. Vlasov was given command of shock troops ordered to break through to Lenningrad. He failed and his force was destroyed (June 1942). He was captured by the Germans. There are varying accounts of the circumstances of his capture.
The German captors persuaded him to work with tem to overthrow Stalin. It is unclear how much persuasion was needed. Vlasov told the Germans that they should allow the formation of a Russian provisional government and he would recruit a Russian Liberation Army. He participated in anti-Soviet propaganda which appears to have had some impact.
The Vlasovtsy were a widely varied group. A British secret service operative writes, "Vlassov's entourage was a strange motley. The most intelligent of his officers was Colonel Mileti Zykov (a Jew). He had a been a supporter of the ``rightist deviationists'' of Bukharin and in 1936 had been banished by Stalin to Siberia, where he spent four years. Another survivor of Stalin's purges was General Vasili Feodorovich Malyshkin, former chief of staff of the Far East Army; he had been imprisoned during the Tukhachevsky affair. A third officer, Major-General Georgi Nicolaievich Zhilenkov, had been a political army commissar. They and many of the officers whom Gehlen recruited had been 'rehabilitated' at the beginning of the war in 1941." [Cookridge, pp. 57-58.] The one common factor was that they were taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht.
Major-General Trukhin commanded the operational section of the Baltic Region Chief of Staffs, professor at the General Chiefs of Staff Academy.
Major-General Malyshkin had been head of the Chiefs of Staff of the 19th Army.
Major-General Zakutny, was a professor at the General Chiefs of Staff Academy.
Major-General Blagoveshchensky was a brigade commander.
Major General Shapovalov was an artillery corps commander.
Brigade commander Zhilenkov was a member of the Military Council of the 32nd Army. Buniachenko was commander of the 389th Armed Division.
It is difficult to fully understand Vlasov's motivations and beliefs. He was judged as a traitor in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn treats him more favorably. I'm not sure how he is judged in modern Russia. I suspect he is still generally regarded as a traitor. A good bit of information is available on him. Of course much of this comes from German sources as Vlasov would have had to written and spoken with caution.
Stalin's purge of the Red Army seems to have been a primary factor in Vlasov's decision. He wrotem "I have seen that the Russian worker has a hard life, that the peasant was driven by force into kolkhozes, that millions of Russian people disappeared after being arrested without inquest or trial .... The system of commissars eroded the Red Army. Irresponsibility, shadowing and spying made the commander a toy in the hands of Party functionaries in civil suits or military uniforms ... Many thousands of the best commanders, including marshals, were arrested and shot or sent to labour camps, never to return." {Vlasov and Vlasovites]
Vlasov's criticism of Stalin and the Soviet system seems genuine enough. The Manifesto of Prague suggests he believed in democracy and national self determination. There was a propaganda element to the Manifesto, but to the extent it includes non-NAZI statements it has a ring of creditability. Vlasov does not appear to have been anti-Semetic. We are unsure to what extent he was anti-Western. He made anti-Western statements, but this may have been forced on him by the NAZIs. The primary question we have is view of the NAZIs. The charge of treason can be countered by the fact that Stalin killed more Soviet citizens than the NAZIs. But the NAZI campaign in the East was more than a campaign to topple Stalin and the Bolshevicks, it was a vast ethnic clansing campaign aimed against the Slavic people. Surely Vlasov must have known about this. Not only is it clearly spelled out in Mein Kampf, but he must have known about SS and Wehrmacht attrocities in the East. How then could Vlasov have made a deal with the NAZIs? There were other Colaborationists such as Petain and Vichy, but in most other cases of collaborationism, the county was defeated.
Only the ROA First Division was fully activated. It was commanded by General Sergei Bunyachenko. The Second Dvision was partially formed, but thrown into action by the desperate Germans. It was commanded by General Grigorii Meandrov. The Third Division was only beginning to be fomed when the NAZIs surrendered.
The ROA fought only one engagement with the Red Army. The battle was fought in the kast weeks of the NAZI regime. The ROA 1st Division went into action near Lake Oder (April 11, 1945). It was ordered by Himmler as a test of the ROA's reliability. The ROA fought for 3 days, but badly outnumbered was forced to retreat. There wre no ROA defeections, but they took 300 Soviet prisioners.
By this time the NAZI regime was desintengrating. The Red Army had launched the assault on Berlin. Vlasov decided to concentrate the ROA and anti-Soviet Russians units loyal to him in the south. Vlasov hoped to arrange a surrender to the Western Allies with the condition that they not be repatriated.
Moving south the ROA First Division came to the support of the Prague Uprising. SS forces moved on the city. The well armed First Division and the lightly armed partisans fought the SS units and were a factor in preventing the destriction of the city. The First Division did not stay in Prague. The Communists played a major part in the Uprising and the Red Army was moving towad Prague.
Vlasov was still hopeful that the Western Allies would be sypatetic with his goals of a democratic, non-Communist Russia. He saw that there would be a conflict between East and West. The Cold War had, however, not yet begun. Troubles had begun in Poland, but having fought a terrible war, there was no interest in launching a new war. Many in the West still thought that they could work with Stalin. (Some authors to this day claim that it was the Americans who initiated the Cold war.) The terrible relevations of the Holocaust and concentration camps had come out. This tarnished no only te NAZIs, but all of those assocated with them. Vlasov and the ROA was never implicated in any attrocities. Unlike some of the other NAZI allies, the ROA and Russians were not used as concentration camp guards. We have noted Estonians, Larvians, and Ukranians mentioned as camp guards. Still the ROA had fought with the NAZIs.
At the end of the War Vlasov and many of his officers were taken by the Red Army. Those units who managed to surrender to the Western Allies were forcibly repatriated. Some had their families with them. The Soviets saw the Vlasovtsy has traitors. Many were executed by the Soviets. Vlasov and several ROA officers were tried and hanged in Moscow (August 3 1946). I'm not sure just what hppened to the families.
Andreyev, Catherine. "Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Emigré Theories," Series: Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies No. 51 (University of Oxford, November 1989).
Cookridge, E.H. Gehlen: Spy of the Century (New York: Random House, 1972).
Littlejohn, David. Foreign Legions of the Third Reich.
"Vlasov and Vlasovites,"New Times Vol. 44 (1990), pp. 36-40.
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